2. amps-preamps
  3. 136421-89400

Pre amps cost vs. value ... what I discovered last month.

Greetings all.

I’m a mastering engineer. www.magicgardenmastering.com . We use Acoustic Zen balanced cabling, highly modified Cary 211 FE tube amps, Bricasti M1 SE DAs and Joachim Gerhard’s Allegra speakers. TORUS balanced power comes 220 from the street. The room is excellent, and you would love to hear it.

For 15 years the pre amp/router was a Crane Song Avocet. I paid around $1800 for it.

Recently decided to try a couple of audiophile products in the pre amp stage and was shocked and saddened how bad they were. Yes, the studio designed Avocet has a relay click for each 1db step, and yes it has a rack mounted 2U body with a corded remote, but it’s clear folks are really getting taken to the cleaners on pre amps. The older and highly regarded Boulder 1010 (used price $5500), was just terrible, truly terrible. The new and fully broken in BAT vk-43SE (demo price $7500) was much better, but still had a cloudy tone as compared to the class A Avocet. Not sure if that’s the cap or the transformer, but it made everything less clear and more generic, more distant from the music.

That’s all. Happy listening.
128x128brianlucey

Showing 2 responses by tomcy6

tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,542 posts
 
Brian,  Thanks for stopping by for this chat.  I think your sample of audiophile preamps was too small. I'm pretty sure you could find something at a reasonable price that could outperform your current pre.  I'm a little surprised that you jumped to the conclusion that audiophile preamps are poor quality/value when all of your other gear is audiophile gear.

Can you tell us what is going on with overcompressed recordings?  I can see the argument for dynamic ranges of 5 or 6 for hip-hop or contemporary pop, but why is everything else being squashed too?  Who is responsible for this and what can be done about it?
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,542 posts
 
Hi Brian, I just want to follow up on dynamic range. I agree that judicious use of compression can add some punch to an album and I know that bringing the bass up in the mix will reduce dr while possibly improving the sound of an album. But a steady blast of in your face sound like the Stones recent "Blue & Lonesome," dr 7 and an otherwise fine album, just gets tiresome.

Loudness in music, especially live, has gotten out of control and has led to hearing loss in musicians and people working in the recording industry. That may have something to do with why albums with wider dynamic range sound dull and old to you and the artists. Music that is too loud and has no dr hinders me from connecting with the artist. But I guess people like me are in the minority. I know this won’t change your mind, but I had to put a word in for more nuanced, less in your face music while I had the chance to speak to a real mastering engineer.
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